A woman has shared screenshots of the “creepy” messages she received from a Swiggy agent who delivered groceries to her house. Prapthi says she registered a complaint with Swiggy’s support team after the delivery agent began messaging her on WhatsApp.
Delivery services like Swiggy and Zomato typically use a number masking feature that allows the agent to reach the customer over a call without access to their phone number – and vice versa.
In this case, however, it appears as if the Swiggy agent managed to get Prapthi’s phone number because she called him not through the app but by using her call log. The agent subsequently began sending her creepy messages that included “Miss you lot” and “nice your beauty, nice behaviour,” among other things.
“I'm sure that most women on here can relate to this. I got a grocery delivery from Swiggy Instamart on Tuesday night. The delivery guy sent me creepy messages on WhatsApp today. Not the first time, not the last time something like this is happening,” Prapthi wrote while sharing the screenshot on Twitter.
TW: HarassmentI'm sure that most women on here can relate to this. I got a grocery delivery from @SwiggyInstamart on Tuesday night. The delivery guy sent me creepy messages on WhatsApp today. Not the first time, not the last time something like this is happening.
Related stories
— Prapthi (@prapthi_m) June 16, 2022
“Please do not take harassment enabled by your app lightly,” she requested the food and grocery delivery platform, pointing out that agents know where their customers live, which makes for a potentially dangerous situation.
“I've been in a situation where an incident has escalated to being real physical threat because of inaction by LE agencies. So, this was a trigger,” Prapthi wrote, adding that the incident would deter her from ordering food late at night or when she is alone at home.
In an update shared yesterday, she said that she was contacted by Swiggy’s escalation team and their CEO’s office. “They listened to me and assured that they would do take all the necessary measures to stop this and to learn from this so as to prevent it from happening again,” she wrote.
Update: Post this thread, I was contacted by @swiggy_in's escalation team yesterday and by their CEO Office today. They listened to me and assured that they would do take all the necessary measures to stop this and to learn from this so as to prevent it from happening again. https://t.co/QmEIApVqXT— Prapthi (@prapthi_m) June 17, 2022
On the issue of how the delivery agent got access to her phone number, Prapthi theorised: “What I've understood is that the number masking function works if we use the app each time we call the delivery partner. If we have used the app once to call them and then use our call log to call them again, they see our number.”
In the comments section, people urged Swiggy to ensure that such incident are not repeated. Some also urged Prapthi to file a police complaint for harassment.
Swiggy announced in a statement that the delivery agent was no longer active.
"We are aware of this unfortunate incident and have been in touch with the customer ever since. Swiggy maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate conduct of any kind, and the delivery executive has been deactivated from the platform upon investigation," a spokesperson for the company said.
They added: "We remain committed to ensuring a safe delivery universe for our consumers, and request users to communicate with the delivery executive via the app alone.”
The spokesperson added that delivery agents engaged with Swiggy on a "principal-to-principal basis".
"The safety of our customers is paramount, and Swiggy constantly works towards upgrading technology builds, such as number masking, to better protect the sensitive information of its users," they added.
